Dhaka - River and boats

Here are a couple of photos I took when I was in Old Dhaka a couple of weeks ago. They show the river that runs through central Dhaka and the amazing collection of boats for which the river is home. Mind you I'm sure there are many other smaller rivers or tributaries in Dhaka as well, as it is a huge city with a population of more than 15 million.

Note the smog!!!

Dramas in Dhaka

Today has been an eventful day in Dhaka. Not only did we have the athletic sports on at school on probably what has been the hottest day for months, but shooting broke out in central Dhaka. Apparently the border security guards, unhappy with their pay and conditions and the treatment in regards to getting them improved somehow lead to a "fire fight" in their barracks. Then the whole area was surrounded by soldiers with some roads being closed.

Our parents who are readily panicked, maybe with reason as many have close connections to the government and political parties, started coming to collect their children. With two thirds of the students gone by the end of lunch, the day was shortened at school finished at 2.30. However, I must say that our students are overly protected - they never walk anywhere as they have drivers, they never clean up after themselves as they have maids, they struggle to think for themselves as many have tutors (a teacher's worst nightmare), hence the parents always think the worst.

What is happening now? The streets of Gulshan are super quiet. Road 35 that I can see from my kitchen window is usually aglow with headlights as cars bank up tooting their horns. Instead tonight there is rarely a car to be seen!! The latest on the mutiny is that some members of the rifles brigade have met with the Prime Minister, who has granted them an amenesty but otherwise negotiations are continuing. Hopefully the situation has been defused. Looks like work tomorrow.

Another published article, not Bangladesh though

This weekend, an article I wrote about hiking in the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco has been published in "The Weekend Australian" newspaper. It also has a really cute illustration to accompany it.
Here is the link.

Enjoy and feel free to comment.

My new project . . . . . . .

My new project that I have started on today is to try and make some money from my photographs via joining a website that enables people to order online cards, calendars, prints, framed photos and canvas prints of my photos. It is through a site called redbubble that is actually based in Melbourne. Search for heatherf and you will find what photo I have put up so far, not many yet but I have to be selective so that I only put the best up. The other problem I have that is any I took on my old, small digital camera are only available as cards or matt prints because of the size/number of pixels. I am also going to try and put a link on the side of my blog, but it takes me a while as I have to paste in html code for that.

Enjoy and feel free to tell me what you think.

School - a bit late but here it is

Rather belatedly, here are a few photos of where I spend most my daylight hours: school. I meant to do this much earlier, like last year, but just didn't get around to taking some photos. That is the front entrance to the school above. Below is my classroom.

This is one of the outside passageways linking the buildings.

The upper primary building.

Inside the secondary building: the secondary well